The Balay Sofia Learning Experience
BALANCED, WHOLISTIC, & EXPERIENTIAL
More often than not and when appropriate for the lesson, gardening or a trip to the forest is preferred over a lecture in the classroom. Observing and experiencing an herb, researching on it, discussing, drawing and writing about how it absorbs nutrition, then perhaps tasting it and then going back out to plant a seed to watch it grow - this is an example of how botany can be taught in a way that sharpens the brain by exercising memory, creativity, and critical thinking while creating a feeling of awe towards the world and an excitement towards learning new skills. Instead of relying on the material presented to them in conventional textbooks, the act of creating their own "textbooks" allows children to absorb the lessons their teachers bring them to make learning their own.
By educating the head, heart, and hands, Balay Sofia fosters a deep and long-term understanding of things and a motivation to create and act on this knowledge.
DEVELOPMENTALLY & AGE- APPROPRIATE
Children are encouraged to take things slowly, live in the moment, and be free to explore nature and go where their sense of wonder and imagination takes them. They are allowed to develop according to their own natural rhythms, to experience and enjoy full and rich childhoods, and gain the experiences they need to become healthy, self-actualized individuals.
In the modern world where everything is fast-tracked, systems, people and relationships are also quick to breakdown. By waiting and respecting children's age and developmental readiness, Balay Sofia's Steiner/Waldorf curriculum provides fertile soil for a good foundation that sets their students up for success, so that each child can confidently face new lessons and life challenges as a physically, mentally and emotionally well-equipped individual able to continuously reinvent him/herself.
___________________________________________
Today, we have knowledge of many, many things and the relations among human beings have multiplied ad infinitum.
But we live in cities that are like deafening factories in awful Babels, with nothing to remind us of our inner world.
Our communion with this inner world is not through contemplation but through books. We have passed from intuition into intellectualism.
― Rudolf Steiner
___________________________________________
MEANINGFUL & PURPOSEFUL
Balay Sofia encourages children to find joy in learning and to see the purpose and have reverence in what they do. Just as math can be learned in the classroom, fractions can be learned through baking bread which in turn can also become a science lesson about nutrition. By seeing academics in this way, the world becomes full of opportunities to purposefully apply what they have learned in their everyday lives.
Learning experiences are interesting and in-depth. Students are given the opportunity to study topics from different vantage points, allowing them to relate better to the lessons and have a fuller picture. This is made possible through block learning wherein one subject rotates every 3-4 weeks.
HEALING
Balay Sofia teachers strive to bring out what lives in each student. They do this with particular care so as not to over-emphasize one trait or skill over another. By exposing the children to a wide range of experiences, they develop within them many interests and capabilities. This leads to well-balanced young people with high levels of confidence in their abilities.
Teachers hold each child with reverence in their heart and mind. They guide children so that they may see the beauty and kindness in the world, allowing them to find hope and strength despite the challenges they may face later on in their lives. Through Steiner/Waldorf education, the school inspires children to have a deeper understanding of the world and its vicissitudes; and with this, to have the spiritual strength and compassion to act responsibly.
